It’s no secret that California assisted living facilities have been in the national news due to reports of nursing home abuse and neglect. Indeed, over the last year, elder rights advocates have emphasized the need to make information about nursing homes and assisted living facilities readily available to older adults and their loved ones. Without such information at our fingertips, how will we know which facilities are safe and can provide a high quality of care for our elderly parents? According to a recent story from KPBS San Diego Public Radio, this kind of information remains pretty difficult to access.

According to the recent KPBS story, it’s not easy to access information about the quality of nursing homes and assisted living facilities in Southern California. For example, Lorid Macri’s mother suffers from dementia, she told KPBS. At the beginning, Macri cared for her mother. However, the stress of caring for a dementia patient became “overwhelming.” And when Macri herself needed hospital care, she realized she needed to find an assisted living facility where her mother could receive quality care.

Given that Macri’s mother had friends and family in Southern California, she knew she wanted to find a facility around the San Diego area. She began looking for assisted living homes on the internet, “where all consumer searches start these days.” Macri explained that she “wanted to make sure the places she considered had no complaints lodged against them, no violations for neglect or abuse.” However, Macri soon learned that she couldn’t find any of this information on the web. “There’s nothing,” she told the station, “you cannot find anything.”

In order to find the information she needed, Macri traveled to Southern California to “request paper copies of these reports.” She was “dumbfounded” that she couldn’t access information about a facility’s history online, especially when she had to make a decision about which facility to entrust with her mother’s care.

Changing the Law in California?

The lack of readily available information about assisted living facilities is a serious issue in California. Currently, more than ten states provide information about facility violations on the internet, such as Florida, Ohio, and North Carolina. According to the news story, “California lawmakers say it’s an embarrassment that a state with the technical genius of Silicon Valley is so far behind.”

Back in January, Assemblymember Susan Eggman proposed a bill that would “require the state to build an online rating system where consumers can compare facilities on quality.” She emphasized that California residents shouldn’t have to use unreliable social media platforms like Yelp when they’re making decisions concerning the care of their elderly loved ones. Her bill, along with several others aimed at assisted living reform, are currently pending.

Do you have questions about the quality of care your elderly loved one received in a nursing home in Southern California? Are you concerned that someone you love sustained injuries because of nursing home neglect? It’s very important to speak with an experienced San Diego nursing home abuse lawyer. We can take a close look at your case today.

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